SEVERAL WEEKS AGO I never would have expected to be going back to Mrs. Claire’s so soon. But I needed supplies. If I could believe what Sister Kat had said–and I had no particular reason to doubt her–then there were things that I wouldn’t have the first idea how to find.
But I knew someone who did.
SEVERAL WEEKS AGO I made call after call to my fellow priests around the diocese, yet I wasn’t having any luck narrowing down exactly what I was supposed to do about the situation. Really, there were two problems that were getting in my way.
SEVERAL YEARS AGO I took a gun.
In hindsight–which is of course 20/20–that may not have been the best idea I’d ever had.
SEVERAL WEEKS AGO After that all together too depressing exit, I was more than ready to leave Mrs. Claire’s. Now I knew that she had been telling the truth–she was being haunted. So far as if Alex was actually having any effect on her business, I couldn’t say for sure, but that was a completely secondary motivation. And then there was Alex’s request. That was something to think about.
SEVERAL YEARS AGO “There has to be more to it then that.” I could feel the pitch of my voice rising, but there was little I could do to control it. He just wasn’t willing to listen to reason and it was extremely frustrating.
PRESENT DAY I drove. And while I drove, I filled Father Antonio and Amira in on at least so much as I knew about the entire situation. They were adequately surprised and disbelieving–at first–when I told them that the lady who had threatened us was actually a giant dog; neither had actually heard of any such thing before.
SEVERAL WEEKS AGO “You.” It wasn’t the most cogent response I could have uttered, but quite frankly I was surprised to see Alex. I wasn’t quite sure why, he had made something of a habit of appearing and disappearing without so much as a moment’s warning.
PRESENT DAY Roaring past Michael and barely swerving to avoid Cerberus–it bounded over me in a single leap, which helped matters somewhat–I gunned the engine, considering all the while just how much trouble I would be in if I hit Lazarus with the Jeep.
It wasn’t nearly as terrible if I just hit him, was it?
PRESENT DAY Michael’s Jeep seemed to cut through what little traffic there was out and about so late as if it were nothing, cutting around vehicles where there shouldn’t have been room and avoiding pedestrians by hairs’ widths or less. Yet no one seemed surprised or angry to see us whizzing by; in fact, no one seemed to pay us any mind at all.